Urban Arcana conversion
 

Hello all!

I've been thinking about converting my favorite D20 setting, Urban Arcana, to GURPS.

Urban Arcana is a D20 Modern setting, which is what happens if the D&D world starts leaking in the modern world. Your typical D&D mage who has to prepare his spells every morning (now he's not using a book, but a smartphone with a "Spellbook.PDF" file in it. :P ), your typical cleric with the ability to Turn Undead, but new classes like a pilot with a supernatural ability to meld his mind to the vehicle he's piloting and an uncanny ability to wreck vehicles (if attacking a vehicle, he can ignore some of it's hardness, which is a pretty straightforward conversion in GURPS, ignoring part of a vehicle's DR), or a techno mage which is the modern mage who can use his magic in new ways through magic/technology interaction (say, casting a sleep spell toward a camera, and have it travel to the control panel and affect the guy watching the cameras). Elves, dwarves, drow, goblins and such are now on the streets, but most people don't see them as they are. They just were taught from birth that monsters and magic don't exist, and try to rationalize it any way they can when they see magic and monsters. Some people are "aware", that is they can see the magic. Also, the new arrivals forgot the "Common" language of the old world, and had it replaced with the local language of the region they arrived in.

So let's deal with the obvious first: new arrivals suffer from the "Low TL" disadvantage (possibly TL-3 or TL-4, most D&D settings are either TL-3 or TL-4). They also have the "Zeroed" Advantage, have "Cultural Familiarity" with the culture they were born in (and given that inevitably, some people from their culture have arrived in the same town and set out to get together for mutual protection, they can probably find their culture easily), lack the "Cultural Familiarity" of the place they land in, have a "Claim to Hospitality" among their peers unless they committed serious crimes (elves with elves, dwarves with dwarves...). They have few resources but decided to stick together and can help people by giving them shelter for a day or two (exception: the drow elves. You all know most drow elves spend most of their time stabbing each other in the back). Also, new arrivals just dropped in the modern world with what they happened to carry on their backs, so I'm thinking TL-3/TL-4 level of wealth worth of equipment (including a few silver coins or some such that they could pawn at a jewelry store).

Most people from the modern world have the "Mundane Background" disadvantage, and people who would not be "aware" should have a disadvantage making them unable to recognize and admit the supernatural happening right in front of their eyes. In the Urban Arcana setting, anyone who accepts the existence of magic can learn any form of magic that can be learn, even people from the modern world.

Then, there should be templates for the most common D&D races, but I'm sure most of the work has already been done (Though I can't see the GURPS disadvantage for drow and orcs being blinded by bright lights like sunlights or halogens. It probably isn't worth that much since it can be ignored by common sunglasses.). So next there should be class conversions.

The Vancian Magic could probably be simulated by Modular Ability spell slots that are each single use, are set in the morning and replenished each day (how much would that be priced, I have no idea...). Converting the spells themselves would involve building them with abilities and apply the appropriate limitations I suppose. More exotic spells such as "Synchronicity" (For it's duration, all traffic lights in your path are green, you get a bus or taxi after 6 seconds of looking for it, you always have an elevator/waiter available when you need one, and people always let you pass without even noticing (allowing you to run through a crowd unhindered) could probably require more work...

I had plans on converting the arcane classes into "Arcane Paths", basically a set of supernatural abilities having the previous abilities as prerequisites (and for spellcasting classes, a spell slot would have a certain number of spell slots right below it as a prerequisite).

So, what does it look like so far?

Re: Urban Arcana conversion
 

I always wanted to play a Smartphone Wizard. I wanted mine to be a RPM caster.

Re: Urban Arcana conversion
 

The standard Dungeon Fantasy racial templates should work for Urban Arcana, I believe, given that DF has a lot of D&D roots.

One thing, though: are you converting the setting or the mechanics of the setting? I would convert the setting to GURPS based on the feel of the setting rather than the game-mechanical bonuses and limitations inherent in D&D settings in general.

I disagree with "Vancian magic is the only magic" bias, but that's my preference (and personal loathing of Vancian magic in general). It works (kinda) with a class-based system like D&D, but I much prefer to use the standard magic system, Realm Magic, Syntactic Magic, or Ritual Path Magic for modern urban fantasy settings in GURPS.

Re: Urban Arcana conversion
 

I'm passingly familiar, and much more familiar with stock D&D, so I get what you're going for.

I'd recommend looking to the Action and/or Monster Hunters lines, to "modern up" the DF templates and rules. In fact, apart from being 400 points and using different magic rules (RPM vs. classic spell magic), Monster Hunters looks a lot like "modern fantasy adventurers."


Might I humbly suggest my own One With the Ship on pp. 11-17 of Pyramid #3/30: Spaceships, for the Interface Pilot and supporting rules for melding one's mind with their vehicle?


As it happens, I'm also working on a "Techno-Mystic" template for Monster Hunters and similar settings, which I'll be sending in to Pyramid any week now. (No idea when an issue will come up that it could show up in.) I know that doesn't help you much now, but all to say that I agree it's a cool idea.


This sounds a lot like "Banestorms," the phenomenon by which Yrth (the world of GURPS Banestorm) was populated with humans and other races. They started out with just Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs (I think), and then the Dark Elves botched a spell to get rid of the Orcs, which accidentally brought humans and a bunch of other "standard fantasy races" to their world. In a lot of ways, that setting is a kind of "reverse example" of what you're thinking about, so it might be worth looking at for ideas.


No need to reinvent the wheel in either case. Use the races from DF3, or if you want something that's maybe a little closer to the "Forgotten Realms specifics," I did variant templates for a Waterdeep campaign.

Use the Adventurer templates from DF1, the Hero templates from Action 1, or (best of all, IMO) the Champion templates from MH1.


I'm not a fan of D&D/Vancian magic myself, but another way to do something very similar is to use the Ritual Path Magic rules, but disallow Ritual Adept. This means that casters can't sling spells in combat, as it takes several minutes to cast a spell. However, they can prepare Conditional Rituals and Charms which allow them to activate specific spells in combat-useful time-frames.

This way, you don't have to go through and define each D&D spell, because you're using the endlessly-flexible RPM rules ... but you can have a say in what spells the PCs prepare for "quick-casting."


I think it could be pretty cool. I know nothing about "Arcane Paths," but they sound easy to simulate with GURPS Powers. Depending on what in particular you want them to do, you might not even have to do much work ... you could use the elemental powers from DF9: Summoners and/or Thaumatology: Chinese Elemental Powers, etc.

Personally, I usually go for "flavor conversions" rather than direct stat-to-stat mapping. As I said, I'm inclined to chuck out things like spell slots and memorization in favor of the many awesome magic options GURPS already offers. YMMV of course.

Yes, my thinking exactly.

Re: Urban Arcana conversion
 

Thanks CousinX!

Personally, I like the Vancian Magic system, call it nostalgia or whatever you like, but I find it has it's charms.

I really like the classes from Urban Arcana, I like the feel they give and would enjoy converting them, the only thing I regret with D20 Modern is that there isn't so much customization possible. Say, in D20 Modern, if I want to play a (techno) mage who's good at CQC (Close Quarter Combat), well I just can't. If I want a mage sacrificing high level spell slots to get a ton of lower level ones to get more boring but practical effects, well, I can't. The reverse, getting more of the flashy spells in exchange for less spells overall, is equally impossible. BAB and Defese bonuses from the class are too low... Even with taking levels in more fighty classes, the result isn't going to be even close to what I'm aiming for. In a system like GURPS, all I would need would be to sacrifice a few points I would use in spells and use them to buy up the Karate or Knife skills (or both) and a few defenses (Combat reflexes, that kind of things). Or buy just the minimum amount of low/high level slots and spend the saved points in the other type of slots. In short, my idea for this conversion would be to play as close to D20 Modern as possible, just with more customization.

Arcane Paths is just the first word that came to my mind to convert the classes into a series of abilities each having the previous one as a prerequisite.

But thanks!

Re: Urban Arcana conversion
 

Sure, I get that. I didn't even like it in old-school D&D, so that particular element isn't so nostalgic for me. But it's weird, I do like that same feature in RPM, the ability to prepare a handful of specific spells to be cast later....


I'm with you there, I enjoy making new templates and bringing over the feel of a setting, and I also love the flexibility that GURPS offers over class-based systems. When our group plays DF, it's usually with 300-point characters, so they can easily afford a Racial Template and/or Multi-Professional Lens on top of their 250-point primary class template, to add a little flexibility and customization.


Ahh, okay. That's way easy then, basically the same approach taken in Psionic Powers ... just make a list of related abilities and assign them levels, often by starting with a bunch of Limitations to provide a low "level 1 cost," then buying those off and adding Enhancement at higher levels.

Re: Urban Arcana conversion
 

Synchronicity seems to be a spell that grants you a somewhat limited serependity.

Re: Urban Arcana conversion
 

I'll change gears and not exactly convert the classes from Urban Arcana, and do with the typical GURPS magic system. I might do an alternate Vancian Magic later on.

New spells:

EMP:

The EMP spells deals 1D damage (bypasses any DR not specifically coming from EMP shielding) point spend on the spell to any unshielded electronics in a 50 meters radius coming from the point of impact.

Prerequisite: Lighting, Shutdown.
Cost: Up to Magery FP (no discount in cost possible).
Casting time: 1 turn

Burglar's Buddy:

This spell disables any security equipment (cameras, IR or Motion detectors, alarms) in a radius of 4,5 meters around the caster, for it's duration.

Cost: 2 FP for 5 minutes, can be maintained for 1 FP.
Prerequisite: two air spells.
Magery 1
Casting time: 4 turns

Dataread:

This spell allows the caster to read any electronic storage information he can touch without the appropriate equipment. It does not allows him to break any form of encryption (at least, not without using an appropriate skill), merely to read the content of an USB drive or a DVD-ROM without plugging it in a computer/putting it in a DVD drive.

Cost: 1 FP.
Prerequisite: One air spell.
Magery 0.
Casting time: 1 turn.

Degauss:

This spell wipes any electronic storage device clean of any data that the caster can touch.

Cost: 2 FP
Prerequisite: Dataread, Haywire.
Casting time: one turn

Haywire (air spell):

This spell causes an electronic device to behave randomly, as if someone was pushing buttons at random, for five minutes, at which point it reboots and starts working normally again. Useful for playing a prank or create a diversion, but not much else.

Cost: 1 FP.
Casting time: 1 turn

Machine Invisibility (Air spell):

This spell causes the target to become invisible to electronic devices for five minutes.

Cost: 4 FP to cast, 2 to maintain.

Prerequisites: Haywire, Degauss.
Casting time: 10 seconds

Recharge (air spell):

Allows the user to recover 1 FP per 5 seconds of putting his fingers in an electrical outlet or similar electricity source. One minute of Recharging allows one to cure any temporary afflictions brought by magic, and provides a +2 bonus to HT to resist poison or disease for one minute after the recharge. It goes without saying that you are a sitting duck while recharging (any defense ends the spell prematurely), and that you are immune to the damage... As long as you are concentrating on recharging your stamina. Losing concentration would result in you getting injured by the electricity...

Recharge only regenerates FP lost by physical excertion, not from lack of food/water/sleep or casting spells.

Prerequisite: 3 air spells.

Magic SMS (Air spell)

This spell allows you to send a message up to 25 words to a specific electronic device of your choosing (a device you can see, a device you had interacted with in the past, a cellphone you know the number of...). The message behaves as an ordinary SMS, e-mail, or other electronic text message after being sent.

Cost: 2 FP

Prerequisite: 2 air spells.

Casting time: 1 second.

Secret pocket (Gate spell):

This spell allows you to turn one pocket of a garment of your choosing into an extradimensional storage space for five hours. You can store 500 grams of equipment in that pocket per FP you spend into casting the spell, provided the equipment you want to store can fit through the pocket. Only you and people you specify can access the equipment. for other people, the pocket is merely an empty pocket. Once the duration expires (and if you don't maintain the spell, at the same cost you paid for casting it), the object are violently ejected from the pocket, breaking brittle items like glass bottles unless you succeed in a DX-4 roll to catch them.

Prerequisite: Magery 1

Casting time: 20 second

Shutdown (air spell):

Shutdown causes any electrical device in a radius of 4,50 meters per FP spend to power the spell around a point you designate to simply cease to function for five minutes.

Casting time: 1 second.
Prerequisite: Haywire.

Wire Walk (Air Spell):

This spell allows you to teleport yourself (and willing allies at an extra cost) to a phone anywhere on Earth. The phone rings, and as soon as the person picks up, you and your equipment turn into pure electromagnetic waves carried along the communication network before rematerializing at your destination. You need to know the phone's number for this spell to work, and someone needs to pick it up.

Cost: 5 FP per person you wish to transport.
Casting time: 20 seconds.
Prerequisite: 8 air spells.

Most of these spells deal with technology, and air spells are the ones dealing with electricity, so these are mostly air spells. :P

Re: Urban Arcana conversion
 

Now, for some supernatural abilities, here is the Speed Demon arcana path:

Sense the weak spot (10 points):

Your supernatural affinity with vehicles give you an Armor Divisor of (2) when purposely trying to damage a vehicle, by any means you want to use (using melee weapons, explosives, ranged weapons, ramming with another vehicle, a spell...). Key word being purposely. Stray shots and collateral damage from area of effect attacks don't count, you have to have actual intent of destroying the vehicle.

Vehicle empathy (10 points):

Your affinity with vehicles and their inner working has grown. You can use any technical skill by merely touching the vehicle and without any penalties, as long as the objective is to sabotage it in some way (unlock the door, disable the alarm, hotwire it...). This ability has "Sense the weak spot" as a prerequisite.

Need for Speed (10 points):

You can push vehicles beyond their limit. Any vehicle you pilot has it's top speed increased by 25%. This ability has "Vehicle Empathy" as a prerequisite.

The vehicle is my body (10 points):

A vehicle you pilot reacts as if it was your body, moving in ways an organic body would, when you will it to. You can spend eight FP to negate the handling penalty for a vehicle for one minute. These FPs count as having been spend for spellcasting for every rules purpose. This ability has "Need for Speed" as a prerequisite.

The vehicle answers to me (10 points):

As long as you touch a vehicle, you can drive it as if you were at the driver's/pilot spot. Your hands are free to do anything you want, but you must spend actions as usual to drive the vehicle. If someone's already on the driver's seat, and isn't willing to let you drive, make a Quick Contest of the skill appropriate to the vehicle against him. The winner has control over the vehicle for one second. A tie means the vehicle goes straight ahead without changing speed. This ability has "The Vehicle is my body" as a prerequisite.

Perfect handling (10 points):

Your understanding and empathy with vehicles has grown to the point where you reduce any penalties to vehicle piloting due to high speed to -1. This ability has "The Vehicle answers to me" as a prerequisite.

Life to structural integrity (10 points):

You can sacrifice your own life force to fix a vehicle you touch. Any HP you spend doing that fixes 3 HP worth of damage to the vehicle. It can fix any part of the vehicle: windows, tires, anything. This ability has "Perfect Handling" as a prerequisite.

Vehicle to body (10 points):

A vehicle you pilot, as well as anyone in it, can use your own Dodge Bonus if it would be better (due to handling penalties). This ability has "Life to Structural integrity" as a prerequisite.

Re: Urban Arcana conversion
 

I myself came up with some templates for DF based on using RPM. I had wizards take their magery with Requires Grimoire or Ritual Mastery, -40% and disallowed them taking Ritual Adept, while Sorcerors took their magery with Limited, Tradition -20%, No conditionals, -20% and required Ritual Adept without connection [30] and Gathering Mastery (1 sec per energy gathering roll), [35]. Make liberal use of the suggestions in Pyramid #66 The Laws of Magic and you're golden.

Re: Urban Arcana conversion
 

That's a good distinction between "wizards and sorcerers" in the D&D 3e sense. There's a lot of great stuff in Pyramid #66, I need to check it out more thoroughly...

Re: Urban Arcana conversion
 

I forgot to mention that I usually stick the Limitations for the sorcerors on their ritual adept and gathering mstery in addition to their magery. It brings their point cost down. You can also allow +0 grimoires for wizards, and perhaps a new kind of conditioal, "Pre-cast Rituals". These don't require a specialized workspace, have no subject until cast, and can't be given away or stolen (unless you have a spell for that).

Re: Urban Arcana conversion
 

Mystic Arcane path:

You have made a pact with some force. Maybe you are a Shinto shrine maiden communing with the local "gods" (minir supernatural entities). Maybe you are a Wiccan/Shaman who has entered pacts with the spirits. Maybe a saint has enrusted you with powers. Whatever the case, you do not worship a god, yet are invested with mysterious powers from mysterious spirits. Unfortunately, these spirits can never grant healing powers by themselves, but you can access them through another way. Requirements: You have taken Power investiture with a supernatural yet not quite divine being.

Focused casting: When casting spells granted to you through your pact, you gain +2 IQ for the purpose of focusing on your spells when disrupted. 5 points.

Brew Potions: You can use your Alchemy skill to turn a spell you can cast through Power Investiture into a potion, at four time the usual fatigue cost, and 400$ per fatigue point spend. The spell affects whomever drinks the potion. 5 points. This ability has Focused casting as a prerequisite.

Psychic lie detection: your ability to read the aura of living being and awareness of their aura spikes allow you to Detect Lies at +3, and to ignore any negative modifiers due to physiology. This ability has Focused Casting as a prerequisite.

Turn humans: Due to your connection with the spirits, you can send massive fear energy spikes affecting any IQ 6+ organic being. This is a fear affliction, emanating from you and affecting any valid target in a given radius, with the Mana Dependent limitation. Cost: variable. This ability has Psychic Lie Detection as a prerequisite.

Overcharge spell: You can overcharge any of your spells, making them cost four times as much fatigue but twice as efficient. This ability has Turn Humans as a prerequisite. Cost: 25 points.

Re: Urban Arcana conversion
 

Techno Mage arcane path: That old wizard with the heavy tomes was a fool! Magic is a wonderful tool, yes, but he really should trade his tomes for hard drives and his spellbook for a smartphone! Combining the understanding of magic with that of technology, you can create many new ways to use magic!

Prerequisites: Magery 0.

Spellfiles: All your spells have the Spellfiles limitation. Spellfiles are a spellbook in digital form, allowing for easy copy and storage. Depending on whether you want to keep your spells a secret or ensure at least one copy of your spellbook survives, this may be a disadvantage (hacking makes discovering your spellfiles easier), or an advantage (scatter enough digital copies in relatively safe places, and one set of spellfiles is virtually guaranteed to survive deliberate attempts at methodically destroying them). It has the same price reduction as "requires spellbook".

Program spell: A technomage can cast a spell on a device and program it to go off should someone do a specific action with it (cast "sleep" on the operator as soon as the session is entered on this computer, cast "fireball" on the area when someone flips on the lights...). Spells programmed that way have triple the usual FP cost, and discharge harmlessly after two days. Cost: 15 points.

Create Homonculus:

Homonculi are creatures bound to the techno mage, possessing no intelligence of their own but having some of the techno mage's life force. Homonculi cost 9000$ in raw materials to produce, and their creation takes a week as well as a skill check at -5 at the end. Homonculi are Size Modifier -4, have 8 HP, Unhealing (repairable), Injury Tolerance (Unliving), can see in total darkness, mindlink (Creator), flight (requires atmosphere), Fangs and Cannot Speak. Destruction of an homonculus causes the Techno Mage 2D-2 of damage in life-force backlash. The ability to create one kind of homunculus costs 25 points.

There are four kinds of homonculi: Biochemical (crafted through the Pharmaceutical skill):

Insubstantial

Possession (limitation: vermin).

Digital: Digital homonculi are a mix of magic and science. They can attach themselves to technological devices and locks, and allow their creators to use skills on them through their minds instead of their limbs. They can also interface with the Techno Mage's own computer to allow online computer hacking through his mind.

Flesh homonculus: A flesh homonculus was build using the magically cloned flesh of a techno mage. It has Fangs with linked poison effect (HT to resist, failure causes sleep for 1 hour times margin of failure, double that on a critical failure), Regeneration (Fast), and DR 4/0 (first value applies to any mundane attack, second value applies to any attack enhanced with magic or purely magical. Unlike regular DR, this DR doesn't causes an unarmed attacker injury, the attack just leaves damage that fixes itself extremely fast).

Mechanical: Mechanical homunculi look like a miniature robots, and can actually speak. It's bite has the added effect of causing 2 corrosion damage to the target it hits, in addition to normal biting damage. Also, a mechanical homunculus has 40 CP to spend on IQ skills and languages, and can buy at most three ranks in any skill. The techno mage needs not to know the skills to program them into the homunculus, but should he lack them, he needs a comprehensive database on the skills (either from someone knowing the skill and willingly giving a copy away (the person doesn't loses any skill in the process), or from computer or books) to program them.

Connectivity casting: A techno mage can cast a spell through electronics and electrical networks as long as he can identify his target's location precisely enough (the person watching the screens for this camera is. The closest person to known device X is. People operating the most important computer is not precise enough.). Spells cast this way are less effective though, and their targets get a +2 to rolls to resist them. This ability requires Create Homonculus as a prerequisite. Cost: 20.

Machine Empathy: You have learned to use your mind to understand machines better. All your skills about using technology gets a +1 bonus, you ignore familiarity and TL differences penalties and you can use any skill you don't know as if you had one point spend on it as log as it relates to using technology (from cracking a computer to piloting a space shuttle). Cost: 100 points. This ability requires Connectivity Casting.

Re: Urban Arcana conversion
 

Thrasher: a Thrasher is someone enhancing his or her body with arcane energy, to charge in melee range to kill foes, shrugging off puny swords and guns in the process. Stamina is critical to a Thrasher.

Tough it up! The first thrasher ability is to allow to use twice his/her HT for calculating Basic Speed if it would be better than HT + DX, allows automatic success on hiking, biking, skiing, and similar rolls to increase distance traveled per day, and to Will rolls for Extra Effort. 25 points.

Take that! For a cost of 4 FP (treated as being used for casting a spell for every purpose), a Thrasher can increase his/her ST and DX by 2 for 4D seconds, at the cost of reducing defenses and resistance to afflictions by 1 for the duration of this surge. 25 points. This ability requires Tought it up! As a prerequisite.

Danger sense.

Damage Reduction: a Thrasher can gain DR 4, 8 and 12 as long as he/she has Take that! and Danger Sense. This damage reduction is bypassed by magic only, but is unaffected by mundane Armor Divisors such as those coming from Armor Piercing bullets since it comes from an instant healing surge instead of a supernatural toughness. Magic simply cancels it.

Re: Urban Arcana conversion
 

Setting:

The magic came back to our world, bringing along elves, dwarves, drow, goblins, dragons, and all the typical D&D monsters.

Those who came here lost memories of the old world other that what they've experienced themselves, or closely held beliefs. A soldier who never met his king in person, and worshiped Heironeous, would remember his dedication to his gods, every battle he too part in, but would forget about the King or the Kingdom's geography. It would be amnesia, except the most important parts of their memories are still there, and what was lost was mostly knowledge that they can't apply in this new world anymore anyway. The common tongue had morphed into the local language in their mind, though the source of this process is unknown. They are definitely dealing with TL 3-4 knowledge though.

However, most people native from our world are unaware of the supernatural. They simply don't pay attention, they go to work, work their boring shifts, then go back home to sleep, they wouldn't notice that the girl sitting next to them in the train had pointy ears... But what about obvious and threatening displays of magic you ask? They were assured that magic doesn't exists, monsters don't either, so when they see magic, a monster, or both, their minds try to reconcile their beliefs in a mundane world with their experience. Most rationalize their experiences (seeing creatures as their closest mundane equivalent, a troll becoming a very big human brute), editing whatever magic they could see (this guy (a wizard) just lobbed incendiary grenades one after the other (actually, he cast a few fireballs)!), or discard them, the encounter becoming a blur in their mind, some time where they know they panicked but can't quite recall the details (and I can tell you IRL that people's ability to ignore what's blatantly in front of their eyes or edit it to fit their preconceived notions is impressive, but further discussion would probably be politically charged so has no place in this thread. If you want to have it, take it to PMs. Thank you!).

Quite a few organizations emerged from this melting pot, and the next series of posts will be about them.

Re: Urban Arcana conversion
 

The Church of Pelor:

Dogma: Known as the Sun God, Pelor is the god of the Sun, Light, Strength and Healing. The Church of Pelor is not the most militant (in the militia sense) religion, but will fight back tooth and nail if pushed. His holy symbol is a sun-shaped pendant (weight, negligible, cost: 5 to 50 $ depending on craftmanship, always made of common materials such as aluminum or stainless steel, Pelor doesn't values ostentatious displays of wealth so a good quality pendant resilient to wear and tear is alright, one made of solid gold isn't), and the Church of Pelor preaches the doctrine of making as many good deeds as you can in life. Evil takes root in suffering and the irrational reactions it causes afterward, and only by making good deeds can you alleviate suffering, depriving evil of many recruits.

Activities: sheltering and feeding the homeless, raising funds for free clinics for the more destitute, teaching the shadowkind (that is to say, the new arrivals) about the modern world, setting up contacts with the International Guild of Laborers (basically, a shadowkind union, with legal counsel and enough knowledge of immigration laws to start the naturalization legal process), and vice versa, offering conflict mediation services, and sometimes job training when they can get their hands on skilled people.

Relationship to the wider world:

Normal people: Another one of these weird Neo-Pagan cults, but they're nice enough, feeding the homeless and making the world a less cold and unforgiving place.
Normal D&D nerd: They are actually worshiping a D&D god? At least it's a good aligned one! Not like that "Sons of Tyranny" biker gang having Hextor's symbol on their jackets! Where did they hear about a D&D evil god anyway?
Aware people: So this Pelor god comes from another world? No wonder that new arrivals would bring their gods along, it must be their only comfort for most of them.
Aware D&D nerd: So D&D third edition was actually onto something? Who knew? I wonder if I'm cleric material... Or maybe Favored Soul or Paladin...
Good shadowkind: Glad we could find a safehouse in this town.
Evil shadowkind: Blast, with them here, we can't recruit the homeless in our gangs, but they know about us and are ready for a tussle... And even if we win, we will have their St Cuthbert friends after our heads...

Common traits among worshipers (priests may add divine blessings as appropriate): Reputation (philanthropist), Sense of Duty (Innocents), Compulsive Generosity, Claim to hospitality (most shadowkind have it by default), Extended lifespan (for non-humans), Talent (Healer), Charitable, Pacifism, Selfless.

Required: Vow (major): Help innocent people as well as you can, do as many good deeds as you can, to the best of your abilities, each of these deeds will help drive away evil.

Re: Urban Arcana conversion
 

The Sons of Tyranny:

Dogma: The strong takes all, the weak serves or dies.

The sons of Tyranny were originally a normal biker gang, robbing shops and committing other such crimes. One day, they tried robbing a gas station, but the local police anticipated it and called for backup. The gang was surrounded by a few dozen cops, as well as four SWAT elements and five police snipers. Then, inside the gas station appeared a muscled and scarred man with six arms. He told them that he watched them and admired their resourcefulness and ruthlessness, and it would be a shame that all of it would end by some cowardly move by the police... He could help them, make them extraordinarily powerful, able to challenge even the National Guard, if they swore loyalty to him, Hextor. They agreed, and the next day, the death of a few dozen cops in full arrest gear as well as four swat elements and five police snipers make the national news. The gang soon grew as every never do well with a bike begged to join, and split in two, then in four, then in eight, and today no one knows how many subgroups of the Sons of Tyranny exist, only that they make bloody rampages across the country, and have started to spread in the rest of the world...

Activities: robberies, murder, more robberies, more murder, rape, more robberies, fighting the Church of St Cuthbert at every opportunity, whatever they (think) they can get away with.

Relationship to the wider world:

Normal people: These guys are scary! How did they manage to challenge even the National Guard?
Normal D&D nerd: Where did the baddest, more dangerous biker gang found the symbol of an evil God from D&D, and why the hell did they put it on all their jackets?
Aware people: So a bunch of thugs backed up by an evil shadowkind god is much more dangerous, but still a bunch of thugs.
Aware D&D nerd: A bunch of thugs following the god of Tyranny and so convinced of their superiority just because they can swing a mean chain? Dangerous, especially since they have divine backing... Who thought D&D was onto something?
Good shadowkind: A very dangerous foe, we must tread carefully as these dangerous brutes on these mechanical horses can attack us any second...
Evil shadowkind: I know how to fight, if only I knew my way around these steel horses I could challenge armies even!

Common traits: Criminal Record, Combat Reflexes, Fearlessness, Berserk, Bad temper, Bloodlust, Bully, Greed, Impulsiveness, Megalomania, Wounded.

Required traits: Callous, Sadism, enemies (Law Enforcement, Church of St Cuthbert).

Re: Urban Arcana conversion
 

Paranormal Science and Investigation agency (AKA "PSI")

An offshoot of the CIA experiments on psionic powers (which were met with very limited success), PSI is an US government intelligence agency that every psionic US secret agent belongs to. Members with at least a minor psionic power make up 27% of their field operatives, and the last 73% are trained in countering psionic opponents and equipped with the best psi-tech. PSI agents are very effective at what they do, but are few in numbers.

PSI's mandate covers the paranormal. Their specialty is psionics, but secret cabals of mages trying to take over the world through summoning demons, the aforementioned Sons of Tyranny, and basically every group the US state deems a threat to national security is made their target.

Depending on the campaign, PSI could be an extraordinary agency concerned with the well being of citizens, secretly trying to plot to overthrow the US gov't to rule themselves, secretly trying to overthrow a corrupt government that has started to use them on dissidents who did not commit any violent crime, or a willing arm of such a gov't.

Common traits: Combat Reflexes, High Pain Threshold, various psionic powers.

Required Traits: Patron (US Gov't), Duty (US Gov't), Legal Enforcement Power (10 or 15 points depending on campaign), Legal Immunity (10 points), Alternate Identity (Legal, limitations: granted on a case-by-case basis, temporary).

Re: Urban Arcana conversion
 

The Prancing Pony:

The Prancing Pony is a medieval themed fast food restaurant chain. It looks like a medieval tavern, with the exception of a few more modern (but disguised) arcade machines. There is a regular show where the Knight of Good defeats the King of Pain, incredibly cliché, but it seems to have struck a chord with both the kids and the adults. Aside from that, it serves as a good place for Shadowkind to find jobs, and many shadokind and aware people have used the busy fast food restaurant to negotiate agreements just like in the old world, hiding in plain sight. Every meal has a fantasy sounding name such as the "Minotaur burger", or the "Elven salad"... Another thing to note is that apprentice wizards train their skills by making decal tattoos and magical wind-up toys for the kids. Decal tattoos represent an animal and give a +1 bonus to any non-combat physical skill for which the animal is known (Stealth for a cat, Jump for a Kangaroo, Swim for a fish...) for 10D seconds after it is applied, or wind up toys that can act for 60 seconds after being wind up. They obey simple commands such as "walk", or "turn 90 degrees right", and can be useful as a distraction (or to carry a small explosive charge, though the Prancing Pony chain doesn't encourage such actions). A Magic Meal contains a child sized portion of fries, a child sized box of any kind of food the child wishes to eat, a child sized drink and a dessert as well as a wind-up toy and a tattoo, and costs 10$. A typical meal for adults costs around 13$, or 18$ for the "Ultra Magic Meal for the grown-up children" which is an adult sized Magic Meal with the same toys as before.

Re: Urban Arcana conversion
 

I think recycling the "Mundane" Disadvantage from GURPS Illuminati University, which at lower levels makes you completely unable to recognize the Weird and Supernatural, would fit well here as a common Disadvantage for all Mundanes. Seeing as how ordinary people don't recognize Shadowkind for what they are.

Re: Urban Arcana conversion
 

"Mundane Background" actually... but... I'm wondering if this could be made active... like the Mist from the "Percy Jackson" books (here, with spoilers... please when discussing keep it mechanical, just looking this up I got a bit of a spoiler as I am only part way though the second series of books).

(and perhaps this question should be a separate thread, if that is desired I'll make one)

Re: Urban Arcana conversion
 

My bad. I see the advantage you mean. Wow, exactly what I was asking about. I don't recall this ever being converted to 4e... or has it and I've missed that?

Re: Urban Arcana conversion
 

It's right there in Basic, page 144.

Re: Urban Arcana conversion
 

You are making the same mistake I made. Mundane Background is a disadvantage. While LoneWolf23k referred to a disadvantage he described the Mundanity Advantage on p. 19 of GURPS IOU which does not exist in Characters or Powers. (I did find two threads (from 2009 and 2006 respectively) that partially discuss it: here and here)

Re: Urban Arcana conversion
 

Oh, that. Not worth bringing forward for a game that's anything but comedy.
I don't have Urban Arcana, but I don't recall regular people's inability to recognise shadowkind being silly like IOU's Mundanity. How does it work?

Re: Urban Arcana conversion
 

Best answer is the Weirdness Censor article on TV Tropes.

Re: Urban Arcana conversion
 

Okay, that just sounds like Mundane Background and a Delusion then.

Re: Urban Arcana conversion
 

The Shadow Market (original creation):

Merchants from the shadow used to sell items to adventurers that were essential to their adventures, or pawning their loot... For a price of course. After all, they had to make a profit. When these merchants arrived in these new world, along with adventurers, they realized they could make a new business of selling equipment and pawning loot to adventurers. The Shadow Market only sells restricted items to shadowkinds or humans who show a knowledge of shadow and are not identifiable members of the Fraternal Order of Vigilance. They also pawn loot from adventurers, and resell consumer goods even to people who are not Aware of the Shadow. They also have an ear on the underworld and on rumors, buying, trading and selling secrets, and can also be paid to spread a secret on which they have evidence for free. They do a discount on their services if you can prove to be fighting the Fraternal Order of Vigilance or the Sisterhood of Lolth.

The Fraternal Order of Vigilance:

Masquerading as a benevolent neighborhood watch program, setting up seminars teaching about self-defense, and supporting measures helping to identify kidnapped kids, the FoV is in reality nothing more than a hate group. Lodges typically operate in independent cells, with potential new members showing at their seminars probed and quizzed to see if they are fit to be recruited. The FoV wants nothing else that the total eradication of the shadows, and will stop at nothing to get it. Their typical tactics include getting people arrested on false charges (planting marijuana on someone and making an anonymous tip to the police is really popular), and paying prisoners in smokes, or other luxuries for shanking the new inmate while they are awaiting trial, as well as making false rape accusations until the accused is lynched, or leaves town, at which point they ambush him. Fanatical and hate filled, most of them would rather commit suicide than allow themselves to be "taken alive and interrogated by monsters".

Re: Urban Arcana conversion
 

The Sisterhood of Lolth (original creation, and I know I'm gonna catch flak for this):

A secret conspiracy with a facade of benevolent organization, the Sisterhood of Lolth was formed when a High Priestess of Lolth was dropped in the new world and had the bright idea to recruit local human women into her inner circle, and serving them a modified variant of Lolth's teaching, preventing them from betraying her and keeping them fanatically loyal to her. Little did she knew that the only reason Lolth, a Narcissistic Paranoid Machiavellian personality disordered drow who somehow attained Goddesshood, did not remove her powers, was because she planned to use her as a sacrificial pawn: either she converts a sizable portion of humankind into her worshipers so that with enough (numbering in the dozens of millions) of her worshiper dying in short enough succession (two decades) the land would be consecrated enough to her that she could pass an avatar through the barrier, kill the high priestess and rule the Earth, or her high priestess dies after establishing a big enough cult, at which point she could exploit the tear in the boundary between the world linking directly to her to pass an avatar through it, and you get the idea... The Sisterhood of Lolth got a head start by killing feminist leaders and passing their deaths as accident, before replacing them with their members. Over time, the movement associated with women's liberation became a terrorist organization with massive amount of public support and funding, which helps them get away with many things. High placed drow members of the Sisterhood of Lolth have started a business of human trafficking, abducting and selling teenage girls into slavery for the sole purpose of staging a "rescue" and radicalize the newly freed women into soldiers (Hello "Brainwashing" skill!). They use a lot of spider imagery, as they see the spiders as representative of them, the strong female spiders representing the strength of all womankind to endure and survive anything.

Re: Urban Arcana conversion
 

Shadow Market, not Goblin Market? ;)

Re: Urban Arcana conversion
 

Since creatures from the d&D like world are referred to as "Shadowkind", it's a play on the "Black Market" term using a setting appropriate word. It's still an illegal market, though most people running it sell and buy as if they were still under the other world's laws, customs and rules.